Editorials: Teach teens impact of online behavior on Facebook, other social media sites

Teens need to know that their threatening postings on Facebook and other social networking sites have ramifications that go far beyond their fantasies.

We know too well what has happened when the words of teens and young adults, particularly threats, aren’t heard or taken seriously by those in authority. Consequences can be fatal. We’ve seen this time and again: at Columbine, at Virgina Tech, and closer to home in suicides following bullying incidents in Springfield and South Hadley.

So it is refreshing to see school authorities and local law enforcement agencies in Hampshire County taking notice and following through with unequivocal action when teens and young adults write words that may be threatening to each other.

While the exact events last week involving Facebook postings by teens in Belchertown weren’t made public, it is encouraging that the superintendent and law enforcement officials took action to shut down any shadow of a threat from cyberspace.

The arrest last week of a Leeds young man and the subsequent search of his house for materials following his posting of lyrics posted on Facebook that involved threats to another person were appropriate and warranted.

Let’s hope teens and young adults can understand that threats are not to be taken idly, particularly now, that they carry weight, and that placing threatening messages on Facebook carries serious ramifications.

It is refreshing and comforting that law enforcers and school authorities are taking action.

In order to live in a society that is safe, each of us needs to take the use of words seriously.

The line between free speech and specific or even vague threats should be clear to teens, to young adults and to all of us.